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Crypto Market saw a slight upside trend last week with Bitcoin breaking the $70k mark but Ethereum experienced some selling pressure, ETH keeps on consolidating between $3700-$3880. But $BNB touched its all time high price on Wednesday

On Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Monochrome Asset Management of Australia launched the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) on the Australia exchange. This ETF is the first and only one in Australia to directly hold Bitcoin, marking a new standard for cryptocurrency investment.

Before the launch of IBTC, Australian investors had limited options for gaining Bitcoin exposure. The available ETFs offered only indirect exposure or were offshore products, which lacked the investor protection provided under the Australian Financial Services Licensing (AFSL) regime. Monochrome Asset Management’s IBTC ETF has changed this by providing direct Bitcoin exposure along with enhanced investor protections.

Monochrome Asset Management initially filed for its IBTC ETF in April, capitalizing on the rising global interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs. After receiving approval in August 2022, the fund is now set to provide investors with direct exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other crypto assets.

The firm assures that IBTC’s holdings are stored offline, ensuring maximum security. The assets are kept on devices not connected to the internet, within a crypto custody solution that meets Australian institutional custody regulatory standards. This offline storage significantly mitigates the risk of cyber threats.

The launch of IBTC in Australia comes after the recent introduction of four spot Bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong on April 30. Despite global interest, three of the four Hong Kong ETFs (excluding Bosera’s spot Bitcoin ETF) have experienced cumulative net outflows. In contrast, U.S. Bitcoin ETFs have been quite successful, with a cumulative inflow of $13.9 billion, although this is balanced by $17.9 billion in outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome Asset Management, is optimistic about the Australian crypto market's potential. He predicts that local spot Bitcoin ETFs could see net inflows of $3 billion to $4 billion within the first three years. This confidence is based on Australia's strong and growing interest in cryptocurrency investments.

The successful introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States earlier this year has shown strong investor interest and confidence in Bitcoin. This trend is reflected globally, with Bitcoin ETFs debuting on the London Stock Exchange and Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Commodities (ETCs) launching in Germany. These developments underscore the increasing global accessibility of Bitcoin investment products.

Binance's crypto exchange introduced IO.NET (IO) as its 55th Binance Launchpool project. IO.NET is a decentralized AI computing and cloud platform. The IO token will be listed on Binance on June 11th at 12:00 UTC and available for trading on the same day. Binance cautioned investors against third parties claiming to offer the IO.NET token before the official launch date.

Binance Launchpool is a liquidity farming service by Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. It allows users to earn new token rewards in return for staking their existing crypto assets. It enables crypto investors to farm new tokens by staking Binance Coin (BNB), FDUSD, or other supported cryptocurrencies on the platform.

IO.NET is a unique project focused on decentralizing AI and cloud computing. The platform aggregates Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) from underutilized sources to provide sufficient computing power for machine learning startups. By harnessing and redistributing GPU power, IO.NET can offer significant cost savings.

A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to accelerate the processing of images and calculations. While commonly associated with rendering graphics in gaming and professional applications, GPUs are also widely used in AI and machine learning tasks due to their ability to handle parallel processing efficiently.

The IO token is integral to the IO.NET ecosystem and serves multiple purposes:

1. Payment: IO holders can use the token to pay for GPU computing power and deploy GPU listeners within the ecosystem.

2. Staking: IO token holders can stake their tokens to participate in network security and earn rewards in the form of GPU computing power. Staking can be done directly or through delegation, where investors choose another node to stake on their behalf.

The total token supply at Genesis will be 500 million IO tokens, with a maximum supply set at 800 million. During the Binance Launchpool, 20 million tokens (4% of the total supply) will be available as rewards. The initial supply at launch will be 95 million tokens (19% of the total supply).

To participate in staking, investors need to complete a mandatory KYC (Know Your Customer) process. The smart contract details for the token are available on Solscan.

The IO.NET (IO) token aims to revolutionize AI and cloud computing by providing a decentralized platform for efficient GPU aggregation and utilization, offering significant cost savings and increased accessibility for machine learning startups. For more details, crypto investors can visit the IO.NET website.

Robinhood, the stock trading giant makes strong moves to increase it presence in the crypto industry.

Robinhood has agreed to buy U.K.-based crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million in cash.

U.K.-based Bitstamp was founded in 2011 and is one of the largest crypto exchanges in Europe.

The acquisition is hoped to allow Robinhood to expand its crypto presence globally and attract institutional clientele.

“The acquisition of Bitstamp is a major step in growing our crypto business," said Johann Kerbrat, general manager of Robinhood Crypto "Bitstamp’s highly trusted and long standing global exchange has shown resilience through market cycles … Through this strategic combination, we are better positioned to expand our footprint outside of the U.S. and welcome institutional customers to Robinhood.”

“Bringing Bitstamp's platform and expertise into Robinhood’s ecosystem will give users an enhanced trading experience with a continuing commitment to compliance, security, and customer-centricity,” said JB Graftieaux, CEO of Bitstamp

Abstraction is about hiding the technical and infrastructure details from users and developers. It means handling all the technical stuff on the backend so that users don’t have to deal with them.

Web2 itself is a great example of abstraction. It’s easy and intuitive to use, unlike many blockchain applications.

In the early days of the internet, you had to manage directories of links and handle IP addresses just to search for something online. Over time, all these complexities were abstracted away, making the internet so easy to use that we are always online.

In blockchains, abstraction means the same. Technology should be hidden from the user experience. People shouldn’t realize when they are using a blockchain or which one they use.

Achieving this requires solving some of the biggest hurdles in the mass adoption of blockchain technology:

1. Bad Onboarding Experiences:
Starting out in Web3 is not as simple as a Google search. You have to create a wallet, secure a seed phrase, add funds (on-ramping is difficult), and manage different accounts and sometimes different wallets for different blockchains.

A solution can be wallets with faster authentication, some using email as a method. Faster on-ramping and access to multiple blockchains and blockchain-based applications.

2. Poor UI/UX:
Web3 is currently focused on infrastructure-level problems, but user-facing aspects should not be neglected. Key dApps like Metamask are known for having poor user interfaces and experiences.

We are starting to see better wallets with improved UI/UX. Metamask also has plans to make significant improvements.

3. Gas Fees:
Paying gas for every transaction is just do not make sense, especially in a world where we are used to free services from centralized corporations like Facebook. While it's true that we pay with our data,but most people don't care much about that.

Just imagine playing a Web3 game where you have to pay some gas fees on every move you make.

Account abstraction is a solution, allowing users to start using a dApp without needing to add funds. Smart contracts can sponsor gas fees or use pre-paid gas allowances.

4. Multiple Blockchains:
Every blockchain is like its own universe with its own rules and systems. This is not only challenging for users but especially to developers who need to maintain different codebases for each blockchain.

Interoperability has been a major narrative in Web3, with many projects trying to bridge different blockchains (EVM and Non-EVM). Solutions include cross-chain bridges, side-chains, token bridges, relays, and oracles. All these solutions aim to create coordination between different blockchains and establish a connection.

Addressing some of these challenges can be a step forward to make Web3 as seamless and intuitive as the Web2 is today. This can lead to some serious mass adoptance!

Thank you for taking out time to read The Web3 Watch by Central DAO

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